Category Archives: Tasting Room

Dry River Brewing – Los Angeles

Dry River Brewing is located in Downtown LA not far from Mumford and a few other downtown breweries. Though getting to it from the freeway requires a bit of maneuvering. They have a small tasting room surrounded by abandoned warehouses. They focus on sour and Belgian style beers so those beers are fairly standard prices even at $10 an 8 ounce pour. I ordered two different beers there on my way South.
I started with Razberet, an oak aged saison aged with raspberries. It had a white cake base with prominent sweet raspberry and just a hint of tartness. I finished with Jungle Boogie, described as a sour dubbel with five types of berries. I wouldn’t have guessed this was a dubbel base if they hadn’t said anything. It tasted like an excellent wild ale aged on berries though. The beer had a ton of funky tart character and intense tart berry notes on a nice soft body.
If you are a fan of sours, it is worth giving Dry River a visit. I did not taste everything they had but the Jungle Boogie suggests that they know how to make a sour and are a spot to watch. They also brew the occasional IPA but they didn’t say what their house approach is to the style.  Shortly after my visit they started canning certain beers and now have the occasional beer to-go in cans.
Known for: 
Come for sour and Belgian inspired beers

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Casa Agria Specialty Ales – Ventura California

Casa Agria is located in Ventura California and depending on traffic it could take you an hour to two hours to get there from Los Angeles area. We made a special trip to visit the brewery from San Diego and stayed the night nearby so we didn’t have to do a huge amount of driving in a single day. The tasting room is fairly mid-sized. Many people were stopping by for growler fills. They have a variety of beers mostly into three categories. Sour and farmhouse ales, hazy IPAs, and stouts.
I started with Strickland Ranch, a mixed fermentation wild ale brewed with honey. The beer was dry and funky with a nice blend of vanilla, mild honey, oak, and white cake notes. I moved on to the fruited sour they had available, a blend of three varieties of stone fruit. It was a bit more acidic and the stone fruit blended nicely with notes of white cake and mild funk. I could have used more fruit with this one but it was still quite good.
I ordered a pint of Tints while I was at the brewery, a hazy pale ale. It was creamy in body with intense tangerine notes and mild vanilla. I left with a growler of their other hazy IPA, Transitions and Interludes. This beer was also thick and creamy but with more notes of tropical fruit. They have really nailed the thick mouthfeel for the style. I also tasted one of their imperial stouts with coffee, trying a few sips from my husband’s beer. It was thick with toasted malts, nutty coffee, and mild sweetness like a candied pecan.
I was overall quite impressed by Casa Agria during my visit. They seem to do all the various styles they brew quite well, making it a great spot for people who live in the area.
Top 2: 
El Besado
Creepy Crawly

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Atlanta Breweries – Wrecking Bar, Three Taverns, Atlanta Brewing, and Orpheus

Wrecking Bar Brewpub

Wrecking Bar is not too far from New Realm. They also limit parking to valet and there is not a lot of parking nearby. They had a variety of beers but by the time I got there I was craving something different so I ordered their oaked ESB and coffee brown ale. Both were excellent.
The oaked ESB had notes of caramel and toast with hints of raisin and a vanilla oak finish. The coffee brown had tons of coffee flavor up front with a nice blend of roasted malts, light smoke. I could feel the caffeine coming through nicely as well. In the unlikely event you didn’t care for any of their house beers, they had a few guest options and cocktails as well.

Three Taverns

Three Taverns is a bit East of downtown Atlanta and in an area where you have to take small four lane roads most of the way. It doesn’t seem that far but you commonly get stopped by people turning in one lane or another. I read about their focus on Belgian styles but now it seems they have gone fully into the milkshake sour area as well. While I wasn’t expecting much from the sours, they let me taste a few and they were quite well done.
I started with the pilsner, which was crisp and dry with notes of citrus hops and a rustic finish. It had light pepper notes and a mild bitter finish. If I didn’t already have a bunch of bottles from Monday Night I might have brought home some pilsner. The sour I ended up ordering was the blueberry pie one and it really tasted like my mom’s blueberry cobbler. The beer had a bright pink color and subtle lactose that gave a light sweetness to the blueberry and spices.
Though Three Taverns had some great beers, I suggest buying cans or bottles elsewhere unless you live nearby due to the drive to get there. It really tests your patience.

Atlanta Brewing Company (FKA Red Brick Brewing)

Atlanta Brewing is not far from Scofflaw Brewing. They have a large tap room in a warehouse. I tried four different beers, two saisons and two dark beers. I didn’t care too much for the saisons.
The first saison was brewed with serviceberries. It was funky with notes of white cake on the base with lingering bitterness and notes of honey. While it was the better of the two, I wouldn’t order it again. The second beer I should have avoided because it was brewed with figs and orange. I found this one a little sweeter and less funky but neither beer did much for me.
My husband ordered tasters of their porter with coffee and barrel aged stout. The porter was dry and bitter with notes of cherry and chocolate. It was too bitter for me and I let my husband finish it. The bourbon barrel aged stout was nice and balanced with notes of vanilla and caramel with a nutty finish. The beer had a good medium body and was not overly sweet or boozy.
I likely tried the wrong beers at Atlanta Brewing so I’m not going to judge them too harshly by the few beers i tried. But I wouldn’t try their funky beers again.

Orpheus Brewing

Orpheus had a good variety of beers but I went for the sours. Noise and Flesh, their barrel aged sour was thin and funky without a lot of flavor or complexity. The berliner weisse was equally bland with light tropical fruit notes and a lingering bit of tartness and acidity. My husband ordered the imperial stout, which was quite lovely. It had tons of coffee and dark chocolate with a nice thick body and light raisins on the finish. I might have tried their barrel aged stout but the price was way too high for me.
I didn’t try more beers while at Orpheus because it was quite loud inside and too cold outside to comfortably sip beers. I don’t suggest stopping by Orpheus for their sours but if you like a good stout the imperial stout was quite impressive.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Monday Night Brewing – The Garage – Atlanta, GA

A few days prior to my visit to Atlanta I checked the various brewery web sites and discovered that Monday Night brewing was releasing some new barrel aged stouts the weekend of my visit. They sounded lovely and a few friends expressed interest in trading as soon as I showed them the list. I was hesitant because I had never tried anything from this brewery before but after the first taste of the beers, I immediately bought as many bottles as they would sell to me.

Given the high alcohol of the beers they had just released, and many others on the board, I only ordered a full taster of one of the beers in the Situational Ethics family. From my few sips having a splash of each, they were some of the most complex barrel aged stouts I have tried and would easily compete in San Diego’s crowded market. While other breweries aim for loading their beers with tons of adjuncts, subtlety was the name of the game here. The rum barrel aged stout with maple for example did not have an overpowering maple character. And they are better for it.

Near the end, I ordered a full taster of Situational Ethics aged in Sherry barrels. This is one that may initially put some people off by the powerful jammy wine character that you taste up front. But once you explore beyond the first tastes, it develops character of caramel and dark chocolate. While the beers were all excellently balanced in flavor, the Situational Ethics series was the most flavorful of the bunch.

I also tasted three other big beers, a barrel aged scotch ale, a barrel aged stout aged in tequila barrels, and an imperial porter. The BA Scotch Ale was delicate and had prominent notes of marshmallow and raisin with a dry finish and the perfect amount of sweetness. Overnight Celebrity, an imperial porter was roasty with notes of dark chocolate and a super smooth mouthfeel. This was what my husband enjoyed at the brewery because it was slightly lower alcohol than the big barrel aged stuff. Finally, Como Te Llamas, aged in tequila barrels had a nice blend of spices, dark chocolate, and mild tequila.

The only lighter beer I tried was their brett IPA, which was one of the better examples of the style I have tried. It was super fruity with notes of ripe guava and candied lemon with just the right amount of funk and low bitterness on the finish. I considered trying other beers while I was there but other breweries awaited so we moved on. But after visiting other breweries in this trip, Monday Night stands out as the best by a long shot. If there is one must-visit brewery in Atlanta, it is Monday Night Brewing.

A few notes about the space, the Garage location is a massive warehouse space with some outdoor seating as you walk up to the door. There is limited seating and most of it is bar seating but thankfully we managed to snag a couch.

Known for:
Come for big barrel aged stouts. This seems to be their forte though they did have other standard styles as well.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Pittsburgh Part 2 – Dancing Gnome, Insurrection, and Piper’s Pub

Dancing Gnome


Dancing Gnome brews nothing but IPAs. Or at least that seems to be the primary focus. Everything is half pours or full pours with the occasional can release. I tried two beers while I was there and they were quite good though still a step below Brew Gentlemen. The tasting room is a bit smaller but still a good size.

I started with Dakota Line, a 9% triple IPA because that was the one available in cans. It was a bit green so I will revisit the beer in the cans after they have had a chance to mellow out. The beer had notes of tropical fruit and citrus with a good thick body and a lingering hop acidity on the finish. Asteroid, a single IPA had a mix of citrus and earthy hop character with a lingering acidity. This was also properly thick and creamy. I might have tried more at Dancing Gnome but I was already at my limit for hazy IPA for the day.

Dakota Line did mellow out a bit after a week or two and was quite impressive for a triple hazy IPA.

Known For:
Dancing Gnome doesn’t brew anything but hazy IPA so if you aren’t into that style you might want to go elsewhere.

Insurrection Ale Works


Our last stop for the day was Insurrection, a bit West of town, closer to the airport. I had their Panama Red, red IPA. It had a nice dry finish with onion and light herbal hop notes with a light bitter finish. This was just what I needed after the hazy IPAs and was quite well done. My husband had a taster of their breakfast stout. It was bitter and quite smoky with prominent notes of coffee and burnt toffee. I thought the beer was a bit thin. Though well-done, I would have preferred it without the prominent smoked malts.

Piper’s Pub


Normally I write about breweries over bars but in Pittsburgh the breweries all close on Monday and Tuesday except for one that opened at 5PM. Piper’s Pub came highly recommended and it made for a great spot to have a few pints before catching our flight home on a Monday evening. It has the feel of an English pub with a nice tap list that is a mix of Pennsylvania beers and imports (mostly English, Irish, and German).

Most beers are served in imperial pint glasses for $7.50 a pint. If you aren’t able to make it out to Brew Gentlemen you may get lucky and find one or two of their beers on tap here. After trying one beer from a brewery we didn’t get to visit, I ordered more Brew Gentlemen because they were that good. Thankfully they had Recertified on draft, my favorite hazy double IPA from visiting the Brew Gentlemen.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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